Positive - Concerned with practical rather than theoretical matters. Real.

Back to work on the websites today (with it being Tuesday and all). Also very excitied about the progress that the Brix is starting to have. I now have two confirmed locations, one more is very likely to say yes in the next few days, and I'm waiting on two that are meeting later this week - all jolly exciting. I hope to get a load of organisation done for this over the next few weeks or so, allowing the site and project launch in January 2005 to have as much complete information on as possible.

Have drank three large cups of tea this morning, and nearly completed the back page of T2 (the supplement for the times) apart from two crossword clues (15 Across and 16 Down!). Yesterday I got up to all sorts. Having watched the Perfect sotrm I went out to town to the Indoor market exploring the possiblity of getting some casual work. I then had lunch at the deer leap (very pleasant - again invovling the back page of T2, though not quite so sucessfully as today) and walked along the beach a bit. Exmouth prayer meeting in the evening was good, though I'd like to start getting some more people along and giving it some focus - that's the target for the new year.

Looking towards Christmas in a worried fashion now having seen the short amount of time left before the event (argggggggggghhh!). What is one to buy his family and friends on such a short budget?! Started to grab little bits and I'll probably have a wonder into town this afternoon as well to continue that trend. Also got John's birthday on Saturday (though the family are in London) and my Dad's birthday on the 10th. How inconsiderate to be born so close to a major Christian festival invovling presents and suchlikes! Anyhow, back to those websites. Have a grand and most jolly day. God Bless...

The Perfect Storm - a pretty awesome story really!

Yesterday after having spent the morning with the littlies at Church, having had a good feed of spagetti bol, having walked on the beach Winnie, David and Helen, I decided to read the Perfect Storm. It wasn't the first time that I'd develed into this novel-like account of a true story, in this case fact really was stranger than fiction. I was sat last night having read about the horrifying account of those who have nearly died talking to David, asking him if he had read the book. He hadn't but had seen the movie. "A movie", I enquired, and getting hold of the DVD went to bed (thinking that two hours was really far to long to be starting at 10.30pm).

Upon waking this morning I had breakfast before setting up my laptop (avec cordless headphones), and watched this theatrical screen play before me. The emotion was incredible and the film was awesome. Bringing to life the story, and complementing it incredibly. I was commend this film to you, though I would also ask of you to read the book first, both accounts go so well hand in hand. The thing that struck me the most was man's fight against uncontrollable nature. It reminded me of our fights against an uncontrollable God. God Bless...

I hate decorative teapots, to be quite frank what is the point of them?

Decorative teapots have no point, they do not serve the purpose that they have been created for - to be filled up with tea and to pour it out. They are a fancy, pretty looking waste of space, time, effort and should be chucked out onto the junk heap. Who gives a monkey if David Dickinson thinks it's pretty or well worth it! It's pap!

In the same way, I think we can be decorative teapots. We can look pretty and beautiful , but we've actually missed our purpose. We've also got to be filled up by God and his holy spirit and then pouring out, into those around us, our jobs and our community. A teapot that gets filled but never pours out will go stagnant and minging. A teapot that pours continually without getting filled will run out.

If you're a teapot where are you on the spectrum. Are you filled? Are you pouring? Or are you just a pretty looking thing that's sat on the side? What is your purpose and are you fufilling it? God Bless...

Lard and Larder, Little Exmouth, All a bit of a laugh really!

Did the first part of Lard and Larder with the fantabulous Simon Tuck last night which actually went pretty well (despite sound problems). Got some exclusive little video clips for you guys to watch just select one of the links below and enjoy the experience. Feel free to download them onto your PC or whatever. They are very little and not too good a quality, but I don't want to break my bandwidth allowance again! God Bless...

Naughty Boy
Hello Songs of Praise
Finished yet?
Singing

New Website Look, Church AGM, Sleep, Been swimming, Drinking Tea - Wahoo!

Sat here today listening to delirious? 5 star rated songs on my media player, perusing the new look aguilder.co.uk site and feeling pretty smug about the whole lot. For those of you who use rss and xml readers, take the chance to nip over and have a look I think that you'll be suprised. The site has been optimised for firefox, though it's pretty much the same in Internet Explorer (I've just got some tweaking of the Javascript's CSS to do). All in all feeling chirpy - if a bit tired after hacking it around the pool.

Been doing some filiming for 'Little Exmouth' which has been mildly entertaining. So far have recorded the intro sequence, some random shots of Exmouth and Daffyd (the only gay in Exmouth, who starts welsh and becomes Irsih - I hate my inability to retain an accent). Today will be shooting the second part of little Exmouth along with some commercials for Ocean Finepants (Consolidate all you skidmarked pairs into one affordable clean monthly pair) and the accident line ooooooops (I was walking around needlessly at work to steal office equipment when I tripped over a stuffed toy...). So that will give me some fun!

Also got Supergang this afternoon and I am presenting theBrix idea to CTE (Churches Together Exmouth) to see if I can get some backing from them. Anyway, filming awaits, I have already spent far too much time on the computer this morning. Just a note for Loughbrarian crew - I'll be back on December the 20th till January 1st, so make sure you catch me! God Bless...

Man it's really starting to feel like winter now. I need some slippers!

Good morning! Well I've been jolly inspired over the past couple of days with some very cool ideas for different things. Aguilder.co.uk is entering the final stage of it's redesign (so should go live in the next week or so) which will also mean this blog having a new look (hurrah!). I've managed to get my RSS and XML feeds to display on the sides of the page using javscript which is quite cool - the new look is quite fresh (though maybe a bit more complex) and very professional (always nice).

Had a good day yesterday. Got a lot done including the life2romania website. Also went down to the beach with Helen and Ruth and had Elevate in the evening which was great fun - I do like getting to chat with the lads there. Today I have a medium to heavy day (!), meeting with Mr Paul Friend this morning up at Tesco, meeting Laura this afternoon, got to write a report for the AGM and go to the AGM as well. I also hope to get some filming for 'Little Exmouth' in during this time - one of my great inspirations whilst playing pass-the-parcel at Elevate! Based upon little Britain it will be a humourous and quirky look at the town of Exmouth and it's residents - huzzarh! Anyhow, got to go and make myself fragrent - have a great day. God Bless...

Doing lots and lots of web work at the moment and I'm really enjoying it!

I'm spending a lot of time doing websites for other people at the moment and I'm really enjoying it! (I don't say that with too much shock by the way - I've always enjoyed making sites, the whole coding and design type thing has always been quite relaxing for me). Firefox has helped a lot, with the web designer toolbar, fireFTP and cuneAform html editor all making my life a lot eaiser. I've been doing some work on Life2Romania - which should launch soon, and Maranatha Missions - whom I'm meeting at the weekend. I'm also doing some experimental stuff and looking at RSS and XML feeding onto sites (which is all very exciting!).

Talking of RSS and XML hello to those of you who have live bookmarked me! What great people you are! If you have Firefox you can add me to your live book marks the feed is http://www.aguilder.co.uk/blog/atom.xml

Starting to think of Christmas now which is rather scary. Got to trust God for a lot this year (especially when it comes to finances) which will be a nice challenge I'm sure. Updating Bigfattoothbrush, and a fresh Aguilder.co.uk for my new fresh self will be rolling out over the next couple of weeks. The fresh aguilder.co.uk will be a number of blogs rolled together, an experiment that I am finding quite exciting! Anyway, I really do have a lot to do and my mug is empty, a another cup and I'll get going again. God Bless...

Matthew 14 - Walk on Water - See, Step, Stay

See Jesus
What do you see Jesus as…?
What parts of his character have you missed?
Where do you need to see Jesus working in your life?

Step out don't sit out
Where are you currently stepping out?
How does it feel when you’ve missed out?
In what could you be stepping out?

Stay focused
Are you focused on the things around you or Christ?
How can you maintain your focus?
Do you need Jesus to reach out his hand and help?

The best things in life sometimes take a long time - I think they can even take a life time!

Not going to write too much today because I've got to go and get ready to play tennis with David for a couple of hours, then go up to Brixington to collect a video camera, then go to some thing on Church planting with the Anglican church and then do YO followed by Powerpack (as well as get some planning for this service done) all in all it's going to be a pretty packed day! Update for bigfattoothbrush is going there is loads of stuff and I'm making sure that all the coding is good both for IE and for Firefox (by far the best browser that I have ever used)!

Yesterday was pretty good, got lots done in the morning - including responding to a hideously large amount of e-mails, met up with Helen in the afternoon for chat and cake and then had Supergang followed by Music practice for Sunday. All in all quite packed but pretty good too! Today I have been mostly listening to WOW Hits 2005 a fantastic compilation album of the years best songs crammed onto two CD's! I've also just recieved the new Soul Survivor Album through the post (though I haven't put it in the player yet - told you I was busy!). Have a great day. God Bless...

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

I never wrote about an article that really challenged me from Relevant (the American Christian magazine and website). The article looked at what this particular lady was actually looking for in a man and it was a supremly challenging and highly insightful read (why not check it out yourself here. The funny thing is after reading this article I watched the passion (as a way of focusing on the cross and love at the start of the 24-7 prayer week), and saw the example of Jesus' love and it blew me away. Love never seems easy. It's a decision, an action that takes time - even in our relationship with God. We need to work on that relationship, talk and listen to God, learn, change to be the person that we need to be for God. It's not easy, but hey, I'm going to go for the hard slog!

In other news, yesterday I managed to make it a hat-trick of church quiz losses (though this time it was only by 10 points!) yet again holding up the bottom of the table! I did have a larger team this time (I was joined by David, Josh, Helen, Sarah, Dorri and Katie) but our youth and vitality was no match to the questions (many of which were based on events from before we were born!). Currently listening to Hip Hope 2005 which I'm about to review... there's a big bigfattoothbrush update coming up - I've suddenly realised how big it is as I keep doing more and more work on it. There is also going to be a change of design for 2005, either changing to a blog based xml site or a php based site. Will probably use aguilder.co.uk as a method of testing this properly first (you may notice the XML feed - suitable for your live bookmarks in Firefox that you should have downloaded and installed by now! Anyway today got some website work to do and then I've got Supergang this evening (which is the first of an Advent 4 parter!). Have a great day. God Bless...

What treasures are you storing up?

I think it's funny how everytime we think we've got it right God comes along and changes the game! In some ways it can seem slightly mean of God, but actually it keeps us on our toes and doesn't let us ever feel comfortable. It's when we're comfortable that we should be most worried! Over the past few years I've never had an abundance of money - but by trusting God with that I have always had what I've needed (even if I do have to wear shoes with holes in the bottom of them!). Paul talks in his first letter to the Corinthians of God selecting the foolish and those with nothing to use as his - because they have nothing without God they can only boast in him. Wow! Wonder if that makes any sense at all .I sometimes get a bit excitied when I'm writing so I'm never sure!

Anyway, today I'm bigfattoothbrushing, then I've got a meeting with Judy where we are planning the alternative service for Sunday (entitled - Don't look down!), this evening I've got Elevate (the group for 10/11) which is up at Brixington and then I think I might have an earlylish night! Tomorrow I've got cluster which should be grand and then housegroup social in the evening (avec my team of winners!!). Well should get on with it all I suppose! God Bless...

A quote that I have recently been very inspired by!

In the last couples of days some very bizzare stuff has happened! Some good, some not so good, but I have come to realise that sometimes were so caught up in what is happening that we actually miss what happens (just like in the quote). Sometimes I feel like the kid who would take his game boy to the grand canyon, play in a puddle when you've got the sea next to your, or eat cheap candy at a grand feast (thanks to Steven Curtis Chapman for the inspiration there!). God is doing incredible things all the time and I think I'd do well to tune into those and see them actually happening! Well we could probably all do with doing that!

Anyway on Saturday went walking on Dartmoor with Church which was very pleasant (though VERY cold) and then went along to the Dear Leep where I met up with Nadine which was really nice. Yesterday I had Sunday School which went really well and I preached in the evening at One Phat Fish (which was an 'interesting' service, though my talk did seem to go down ok!). Today I've been meeting up with all sorts of people. Met up for Mochaas and Cappachinos with Helen this morning, lunch with Nadine at the deer leap, Ruth, Helen and Dori for Exmouth Praying late afternoon and evening drinks with David and Dori (plus a cameo role from Nadine!). Feel kind of tired now typing this e-mail!

Anyhow, I am now going to go and listen to Hip Hope 2005 (a fantastic collection of hip hop music from the best Christian music artists, that I'm sure shall enlighten and illuminate my evening even further). God Bless you...

Blur would have sang it if they'd lived in Exmouth!

Been doing a lot of walking over the past day or so (so my legs now feel like two jelly babies and as though they might fall off!). Went down the beach, up to Sandy Bay then across to Littleham with Helen yesterday which was quite funny (nearly getting killed on numerous occassions) and then today went along with Ruth (though we didn't actually go on the beach cos of her trousers!). Got another walk tomorrow as well - what a jolly little life I lead!

Still trying to convert the whole world to firefox - the brilliant browser (might try spreading the gospel as well - that'd be good!). Got two youth groups tonight YO and Discovery though the guy who was meant to have ordered our DVD's forgot and so we've got to do a 'special' - so that's Andy (wow addressing myself in the third person) on Iron Bru! Yesterdays group went really well, the Supergang kids are lovely though I'm going to filter my leading out of the group over the year ready for when I leave at the end of the year...

Been listening to Ceilidh Electric, a fantastic dance ceilidh album that really gets your feet tapping and your soul a dancing! Well I'm going to go and watch a film before youth group and then it's youth group it's self - hurrah! Remember to be yourself, don't let the world mould you because like cold wax they'll break you. Instead let the light of God warm you and mealt you into the person you should be. Enough of the dodgy analogy! God Bless...

Back in Exmouth, and back to work!

Wow, it's actually very nice to be back and I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into some youthwork (and a normal routine - the whole, swim, breakfast, e-mail, blog, plan, lunch, more planning/free-time and group type thing!). Already updated to Firefox 1.0 which is awesome and have a new funky 'kids' looking desktop which is quite minimalist (fantastic for browsing the web!). I really do recommend it to you all - no because I have to, but because it's quite simply awesome!

Travelling was fun...listened to some music, read the times, stood in the cold at Bristol Station (which seems to have lost the roof) and was shocked that the bus driver didn't know the directions to St.Margrets Bus Station (helpful when you're travelling there!). Got back around 4 in the end, Simon and the Exmouth-Ice team (avec new uniforms) picked me up and then I went out for Moccas, Choccas and Colas with Sarah, Katie and Helen. Yesterday evening went round to Katie's for cha and chat, after a most fantabulous meal (including a ginormous pile of mash!).

Ahh! My cup of tea is going cold and is going to get that horrible filmy thing on the top of it. Better rescue it before I need to use the microwave. Got Supergang this evening which will be great I'm sure and I'm currently listening to 'Favourites that you have not heard recently' on my windows media player. Have a truely fuffilling and God Blessed Day (they come as a package!). God Bless...

I'm ready for that 6h55min journey CUMMON! Have a great day yourselves!

Four nights with around 7 hours of sleep in each one - what a fantastic answer to prayer!

Not really been doing too much today, it's my last day off (I'm travelling back on the coach tomorrow with a mammoth 6hr55min coach journey and then train back from Exmouth to Exeter) so been doing some pottering. Went along to morning prayer at the church which I have really been enjoying - finding fun in the fact that God can really powerfully move in such a formal setting! Did some web-design for a friend which is looking pretty good and ate lunch (a fantabulous spread of toast and boiled eggs with a Muller Light Mandarin youghurt - mmmmm). Also learnt how to spell some word when trying to find them in the dictionary!

Not got anything really tonight. Going round to see Paul and Emily at around 3/4pm because otherwise I wont be seeing them until Christmas. Listening to some rather old skool rock with a pre-release of the Benjamin Gate album (Contact) from July 2002 which features Fall Away, a track which never made it to the final album. Very cool. I do have a final release somewhere around but I personally feel that the pre has an edge over the final thing which seemed a little 'over-produced'.

Anyhow, better get ready to go and visit Paul and Emily and top up me phone credit so I can give a few people a buzz. Have a truely awesome day and remember that God is always there but sometimes we let our clouds of ambition, pride and dissapointment get in the way of us seeing him. God Bless...

Yes after nearly a month away from the blog I'm back to reclaim my throne!

It's funny - I never thought that any body bothered to read my ramblings about my life and all the stuff that's going on, however over the past few weeks so many people have come to me - demanding to know why I haven't updated my blog. Well this post is for all you guys!

I haven't actually been too well of late, I've had Insomnia - which is a really pants thing where you get next to no sleep (and in my case when you did sleep you got totally monsterous nightmares), I was also spiritually quhacked after the 24-7 prayer week - which was great by the way. So I'm currently back at home in Loughborough having a few days of the 3C's (Chat, Chill and Char!).

Music wise at the moment I'm listening to some awesome material, Pillar, Jump 5, U2 and Travis are the main candidates at the moment. Pillar's new album Where do we go from here is much better than Fireproof and I really liked fireproof! It's heavier, louder and full of the gospel! Jump5 have released an album that I like pretty much all of (suprising as I usually don't go for pop). U2's new single VeRTigo is fantabulous! It's U2...what more can you say? Finally the Travis album singles (which is kind of a best of album) is fantastic. There are some real gems on this CD and I can stick it on and listen to it for hours. Grand!

Anyway, I'm not really meant to be doing any work (though this isn't work - it's more like personal relaxation!), so I'm going to go and have a cup of char and see if the word desert means anything to my parents! God Bless...